Mountain Saint

She lays her head in the Blue Ridge mountains
Covered up in the tall pine
Running trails where there ain't no traveling
Up to the brush creek line

20 miles down a dead-end holler
To meet a man for the whole year's haul
Through the mud and that sulfur water
Down where the panthers bawl

He weighs it out on that backhoe trailer
And pays with no complaint
Hard as hell, like a coffin nail
That little mountain saint

And had every job in that old coal county
The dairy bars and the dollar stores
Workin' hard tryin' to raise that family
She never could afford

Just a girl from the mouth of hazard
Bet it all on a river fool
Used to sit cleaning junk he gathered
When every flood come through

They pulled him out of that muddy water
She didn't cry or faint
Went on her own where the cold wind moans
That little mountain saint

And always swears if you live right, you won't be seen
Ain't no crown for this country hustling queen

She ends her day with her favorite bourbon
Warming up while it's turning cold
Gets the last of the white oak burning
See what the winter holds

Covers up in that blacked out cabin
Dreams of gold and paints
She's riding high 'neath the southern sky
That little mountain saint